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Neoliberal Feudalism's avatar

Hi Mark, nice post. It reminds me quite a bit of Scott M. Peck's book "People of the Lie." He states, p.73-75, "A predominant characteristic, however, of the behavior of those I call evil is scapegoating. Because in their hearts they consider themselves above reproach, they must lash out at anyone who does reproach them. They sacrifice others to preserve their self-image of perfection....Scapegoating works through a mechanism psychiatrists call projection. Since the evil, deep down, feel themselves to be faultless, it is inevitable that when they are in conflict with the world they will invariably perceive the conflict as the world's fault. Since they must deny their own badness, they must perceive others as bad….In The Road Less Traveled I defined evil "as the exercise of political power - that is, the imposition of one's will upon others by overt or covert coercion - in order to avoid...spiritual growth". In other words, the evil attack others instead of facing their own failures. Spiritual growth requires the acknowledgment of one's need to grow. If we cannot make that acknowledgment, we have no option except to attempt to eradicate the evidence of our own imperfection....Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity. They worry about this a great deal. They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them....the words "image," "appearance," and "outwardly" are crucial to understanding the morality of the evil. While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their "goodness" is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. This is why they are the ‘people of the lie.’”

Also, p. 119: “Evil [is] defined as the use of power to destroy the spiritual growth of others for the purpose of defending and preserving the integrity of our own sick selves. In short, it is scapegoating. [The evil] scapegoat not the strong but the weak. For the evil to misuse their power, they must have the power to use it in the first place. They must have some kind of dominion over their victims.”

Also, you touched on a lot of themes that I hit on from a different angle about the nature of the soul, which you may enjoy: https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/ruminatons-on-the-nature-of-the-soul

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William Hunter Duncan's avatar

It seems self evident, if one thinks about harming people repeatedly, the material brain will come to reflect that. Working in men's circles for years, it became clear to me some men are so long immersed in trauma they cannot see or act outside that trauma, and everything they think and do reinforces that trauma. We called it worshiping the wound.

This is why in magical circles, the most cherished notion is learning how to change consciousness in accordance with will, which takes effort, diligence, practice and time.

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